CD Review: Maggie Nichols, Pi

Photo by David Laskowski

Maggie Nicols has been at the forefront of improvised music since the 1970’s. Her career started as dancer at the Windmill Theatre at the age of 15 and then at 16 she became obsessed with jazz collaborating as a singer with the pianist Dennis Rose. She continued to work as a dancer around the world in Greece, Iran and Paris. In 1968 she joined John Steven’s Spontaneous Music Ensemble with incredible musicians such as Trevor Watts, Johnny Dyanu and Carolanne Nicholls. In the 70’s, Maggie became an active feminist and co-founder of the group OVA organising workshops for women. She played in several international festivals with different groups making herself an active participant in the European improvisational community.

Maggie’s last project is the quartet ‘Siapiau’ (Welsh for ‘Shapes’) where she also plays keyboard along with Fran Bass (electric bass/vocals), Richard Harrison (percussion/vocals) and Phil Hargreaves (reeds/vocals). This project features four improvisers that have been playing together for over twenty years: “It’s a band who aren’t afraid of the experimental, but aren’t afraid of a good groove either. It’s improvised music that you could, at times, dance to.” (notes from the Quartet). The album ‘Pi’ was released in September 2023 with the label Discus.

This album is a real journey and exploration of human feelings and sounds. It is a circular album, as the title ‘Pi’ (the Greek letter) explains; the listener can really feel the circle shape of it. They created this album in just one weekend and one would hardly believe that considering the level of depth and maturity of the pieces.

The poetry and the use of the voice in In Eternam are remarkable and a good opening for this album. In Approximately Diagonal, the energetic sound of the saxophone (played by Phil Hargreaves) evokes George Adams’s saxophone improvisation while the general sound of the song reminds me of ‘70s progressive rock groups like Soft Machine or Area. The voice of Maggie is outstanding in this song and the dialogue between her and the saxophone is amazing. She explores her voice in all its range and shapes. Feasting with Panthers is a more meditative song and it has more space to reflect. It is amazing how the musicians manage to build something together that evolves in time like this song; it underlines the high talent of these musicians. Anterliwt is much shorter than the others, but it is very evocative, and it relaxes the mind from the other songs full of different sounds. It acts as a sort of bridge and an interlude between shapes. Music for hands (composed by Phil Hargreaves) is a brilliant song. The experimental attitude in this song is remarkable and it is amazing how the musicians managed to do a song just with their hands; it reminds me also about how much the hands of the instrumentalists are important for expressing music.

The rhythms created with the hands are then played by instruments/voice at the end, like a sort of rite of passage. Hamadryad is a song that, like Approximately Diagonal, is an echo of progressive rock songs; the saxophone solo dialogues very well with the rhythm section and creates a very powerful crescendo in the song, suggesting me Weather Report’s music. Again here the incredible voice of Maggie reports to me of Area’s singer Demetrio Stratos and the album Return to Forever by Chick Corea with Flora Purim on vocals. Anterliwt interrupts again the previous atmosphere and it gives time to reflect on what we just heard. I Favour Nonsense starts with an effect on the flute (sounds of the fingers tapping on the instrument, I guess) that dialogues with the drums and I find this dramatic and very inspiring. This song appears more empty than the others, but it just gives more space to the instruments to dialogue. In the middle of this, there is a beautiful poem, by Kurt Schwitters, recited by Maggie that explains the meaning or non-meaning of the song in a sort of nonsensical monologue, like the Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. October Butterflies (composed by Phil Hargreaves) is a fun piece with different voices dialoguing; you can hear the wings of different butterflies moving together lightly, in harmony. It is incredible how in this song, words are used as sounds. Then another Anterliwt comes with more sounds than before. I am not Simeon is a poem, full of sounds and restlessness, typical of human nature: it is the research of something between the human and what surrounds us. A Message is the last song of this incredible album in which words mix with sounds; the vocals dialogue with the bass and the saxophone on an electric piano texture. This song disappears but leaves in the mind of the listener a journey full of sound and reflection.

This album is a meditative journey through human feelings and nature; it explores how everything can be music. It shares one important meaning of music, which is, for me, creating music with others, sharing feelings, good or bad, and creating something bigger than us which stays with us. I think that this album will stay with me for some time and I hope it will do the same for you.